The Recovering Choir Director

Hmm. I’m not familiar with all of those choices but I’d agree with Gift of Finest Wheat and Our Blessing Cup.

I’d also add the Becker Litany of the Saints.

Some good contemporary hymns and chants:

1) Nearly everything by Taize

2) Marty Haugen’s setting of “We Walk By Faith”

3) “In the Breaking of the Bread” by Bob Hurd

4) “Holy Is His Name” by John Michael Talbot

5) Some of John Bell’s work (WARNING: some have squirrelly content)

6) Some of Bernadette Farrell’s work (Early stuff — her later work gets squirrelly.)

Eminently singable but drives me up a wall: “Sing a New Church” Great tune, lyrics which set my teeth on edge.

There is a difference between what we like and what is well crafted. I admit I like some pretty sappy tunes sometimes, and I admit to having written a published some less than great liturgical music. I cringe when I go to California and this choir gleefully sings one of my 1970’s tunes to please me. I appreciate the compliment, but I refuse to pick or sing that song anymore. It is a piece of garbage and deserves to be laid to rest. The liturgy deserves our best. The songs that move our heart to praise and conversion are meant to be sung for ages. They endure and they constantly move us. This was a truth I did not know in my 20’s

Of the songs listed here so far I would only put my name to “Gift of Finest Wheat” and “Where Charity and Love Prevail.”

I know my often affects my choice in music. But I am looking for music that will last, that bears repeating, that will challenge our heart each time we sing it.

I am less and less enamored with OCP and as pastor removed the music issue from the pews. We replaced it with Ritual Song. I do not want to canonize everything in RS because there are some real groaners in there.

Here is a tune I have been singing every night for years and I am not tired of it, and it still calls me to something more than I can see:Jesu Dulcis Memoria. We sing the english text “O Radiant Light.”

keep the search going.

I have had the music of “Where Charity and Love Prevail” running thru my head for years, since I first learned it in the ’60s. But I cannot find the words, lyrics, or written music for it anywhere. Only bits and pieces located here and there. Usually the statement “Lyrics not available” is the only answer I get. Do you know of a source for this beautiful song” Also I would agree that “Gift of finest wheat” is a song worth lasting value………….Thanks for your time and any help you might give me in my quest,

AAE, in your initial post on this thread, you refercne another thread where Fr. Keyes initiates the subject of contemporary music that is well crafted, or that fits well with chant.

I can’t seem to access that post.

is it archived?

Thanks.

Sorry, to be a nudge, but now it takes me to a thread about By Flowing Waters, and where to find a good liturgy on Long Island — no Fr. Keyes.
(whose writing aloways interest me.)

I apologize!

(I was looking for, or really hoping for, a list of contemporary music he, or you, recommended.)

Thanks again!

“I don’t find much room for the organ style of music in where verses are mere chords and all vocals”

Not sure what this means, can you explain?

gavin knows what im talking about. by organ songs being mostly all chords and vocals, i mean that the organ plays a chord or two during the verses while the vocalist sings and it usually sounds rushed, whereas in songs like you are mine the music continuously flows from the piano and keeps up with the vocalist, and call it “trash” music if you will but i think it gets the message across better and keeps peoples attention. my church at the one mass plays this music and has since it first existed, with instrumentation including piano, violin, guitar, flute, percussion (mild), and clarinet. no professionals either, just people who appreciate the music. it continues to get the best turnout of all our masses, and i think as long as the music program exists that marianne cook created, it will continue to do so. the music speaks to people without boring them. some favorites of mine include canticle of the turning, lord you have come to the seashore, loving and forgiving, hey hey anybody listenin, on this mountain. I would also like to see How great thou art done in a nice piano layout.

Liturgical piano music in contemporary style generally brings images of a tuxeodoed pianist in a hotel ballrom with a glass with a few dollar bills and some change (for tips) while well dressed people mingle about sipping champagne to my mind if I close my eyes. Try it, it works!

Jeffrey, do you think it possible that the publishers’ major concern is not liturgical or even spiritual, and that the addition of “New Age” accoutrements makes the “product” more commercially viable?

As many of you know, Oregon Catholic Press takes a lot of body blows (many deserved) for its inclusion of post VII songs that are deemed beneath the aesthetic and liturgical standards, not to mention some of which are downright beneath contempt (SING TO THE MOUNTAINS….SING A NEW SONG….Judy Hylton’s GLORY TO GOD…)
I thought I’d share some contemporary titles I regard to be “tweeners,” songs/hymns that work quite sucessfully rendered traditionally with organ/choir, piano/choir, ensemble/guitarists(skilled)/singers and/or cantors/accompaniment.
GATHER WE NOW Robert Moore;GO AND SHARE Chris Walker;UBI CARITAS Bob Hurd;ONE IN BODY, HEART AND MIND Walker (realign the second syllable of the 16th notes to the last 8th note in verses, though); BY THE WAKING OF OUR HEARTS Manalo; DON’T BE WORRIED Grayson W. Brown; O GOD, YOU SEARCH ME Bernadette Farrell; CENTER OF MY LIFE Walker; DONA NOBIS PACEM Greg Norbert (!);WHERE TWO OR THREE HAVE GATHERED (I’m a big fan of) M.D.Ridge;GOD OF THE HUNGRY Scott Soper;THANKS BE TO GOD Stephen Dean; ALL GOOD GIFTS Kevin Keil; LAUDATE, LAUDATE DOMINUM Walker;ANGELS COME IN CELEBRATION Timothy R. Smith (check this one out!)BENEDICTUS Farrell;THE LORD IS MY LIGHT Walker;AVE MARIA Greg Norbert (again!);THERE IS NOTHING TOLD Christopher Willcock;WE SHOULD GLORY IN THE CROSS Manalo;AT THE NAME OF JESUS Walker (bit Gospel-like);

Here’s my 0.02 from a totally untrained layperson. I agree with some of the tunes already mentioned and would add my own favorites:

Litany of the Saints by Becker (love it so much I have to mention it again)
The Summons (I love the words and the tune)
Lord of All Hopefulness